CH. 11. EIFF MOUNTAINS. 35 



helped us to recover everything of importance. The 

 watch and note-book were safe; but the contents of a 

 broken bottle of claret had somehow run under the 

 cover of Hooker's mattress, and, placed as we were, the 

 attempt to rearrange it was something like the classical 

 difficulty of ' swopping horses in the middle of a stream.' 

 Cautiously creeping about to see what had befallen our 

 companions, we found the faithful Bulbo (with more 

 practical meteorological instinct than we had displayed) 

 safely ensconced on the lee side of the low parapet. The 

 shapeless heap, rolled up in the multitudinous folds 

 of a white haik, could not have been recognised, but 

 for the inevitable long gun in the red case that lay 

 beside it. 



Little sleep was to be expected for the remainder of 

 the night, and with the first light we began to move. 

 Though the wind was falling, we could not attempt to 

 avail ourselves of Maw's cooking apparatus, and we 

 agreed to postpone breakfast till we should reach some 

 more sheltered spot. The vegetation here was little ad- 

 vanced, and we saw but few plants in flower, save a little 

 yellow Lithospermum (i. apulum), on our way to the 

 top of the pass, which was covered with low brushwood 

 and shrubs of the same species that we had seen near 

 Tangier. 



We halted in a hollow place near the highest point, 

 where we strangely omitted to take observations for alti- 

 tude ; and after a slight repast hurried down the slope in 

 a SSE. direction, towards the valley of the Tetuan river. 

 We here enjoyed a fine view of the snow-streaked mass of 

 the Eiff Mountains, which we may call, from their best 

 known peak, the Beni Hassan Group. 



The mountain ranges of the Eifi' — extending for about 

 180 miles from Tetuan to the mouth of the OuedMou- 

 louya, which lies very near the French frontier — un- 

 doubtedly form a part of the system of the Lesser Atlas 

 of Algeria ; but, if we may trust the maps and such scanty 



D 2 



